


The Dead Man

by Batdad (MizGoat)



Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Aromantic Obi Wan Kenobi, Hurt/Comfort, Injury, M/M, Whump, post order 66 reunion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-11
Updated: 2020-05-02
Packaged: 2021-03-01 19:48:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,235
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23602612
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MizGoat/pseuds/Batdad
Summary: The last person Cody expected to see as he lay dying on a remote outer rim world was a dead man.
Relationships: CC-2224 | Cody/Obi-Wan Kenobi
Comments: 36
Kudos: 359





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I have a lot of ideas about how these two could meet after order 66, this is just one of them.

He was going to bleed out, he realized, as he sat with his back propped up against the alley wall. The shot that had grazed his stomach wasn’t the kind of wound that would have got you killed during the war. But during the war he had almost always been with, at minimum, a full company, and there would have been a medic a com call away. Now he had only a handful of men under his direct command and they were off trying to catch the thieves that had robbed the supply shipment. They weren’t going to stay to see what happened to him. He was too long in the tooth, and those supplies were worth more than he was. The fact that he had tried to tell command that stopping on a planet controlled by the Hutts was a mistake wouldn’t matter much when blame got handed out. 

At any rate he’d known for a while now that his constant mild demotions and increasingly remote postings had been the Empire’s way of executing him without anyone noticing. He’d been a useful piece of war hero propaganda once, but then the chip had slowly quit working and he’d become a nuisance and a liability. Never anything that could be proven, but not subtle enough to go unnoticed. 

It took some effort but he managed to pull his helmet off and let it fall with a clatter somewhere down the alley. He didn’t want his last look at the world to be filtered through the distortion of the cheaply made HUD. Without the helmet’s microphones amplifying the sound though he could no longer hear his men fighting in the distance. His ears weren’t what they once were. The years of constant explosions and gunfire had taken their toll. 

But even his worn out ears were able to distinctly pick up the click and hum of a lightsaber ignition. The sound was still intimately familiar after all these years. He turned to follow the sound, and startled at the dead man he saw holding the weapon. 

Perhaps the blood loss was making him hallucinate. Didn’t matter. He knew the swirl of brown robes. He knew the glowing blue blade.

“You might as well. I know I’ve earned it.” He tried to tilt his head to expose his neck and make a clear target, but he found his head lolling about a bit more than he would have liked. 

But the blow he had braced for never came. Instead he heard the lightsaber switch off and felt the dead man start rifling through the containers on his belt. He tried to roll his hips to give clearer access to his holster. It was getting hard to keep his eyes open. 

“Hells, Cody, I don’t want your karking blaster. Where is your damn med kit?”

He hadn’t been Cody in such a long time. The dead man’s eyes were still so, so blue, and he was so close. 

“That hasn’t been standard load out for a long time, sir.” The dead man cursed. “Got a little contraband though. Back pouch, left side.”

The words had barely left his mouth before he felt himself being dragged forward to rest against the dead man’s chest, as he dug out the small bottle of black market bacta. 

“Good man.” The words hit him like a jolt of electricity.

He wanted to protest against the bacta being wasted on him, but the dead man was warm to the touch, and his chest rose up and down with steady regular breath, and the cool bacta felt good on his scorched side. 

“That should hold until we get somewhere safe to patch you up properly.” It was the sort of statement that sounded more like a wish than a fact. “You just need to hold on ‘til we get there.”

He had been ready to die. Had known his death was near and had wanted to face it calmly. But with those words his resolution crumbled. The dying man had been an old soldier who’d gotten too slow. He was Cody, and General Kenobi had given him an order. He was going to follow that order or die in the attempt.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before we begin, gentle reader, I just wanted to reassure those of you who noticed the addition of the aromantic Obi-wan tag that I haven’t pulled some bait and switch and made this a story about unrequited love. This is a story about two people who love each other, but who experience different types of attraction to one another. And also have a bunch of trauma to deal with. I’m just aro and have a habit of hcing many of my favs as aro too.

Cody woke up to find he was sharing a bed with the dead man. His back was pressed against a cool stone wall and laying in front of him was the sleeping form of General Kenobi. 

Sleeping, he reassured himself. Not dead. There was light creeping in through a window that picked out the ample grey strands of hair mixed in with the red. They had only just begun to creep in at the temples when Cody had seen him last. There were crow’s feet too where none had been before. He was snoring, just a little, and his chest rose and fell with each breath. 

And still some irrational impulse found Cody reaching to touch his neck and feel for a pulse. 

Kenobi woke up with a start, and Cody jerked his hand back to rest it on his shoulder. Kenobi shifted himself until he was propped up on one elbow, and the resulting friction made Cody suddenly very aware that he had been stripped to the waist and Kenobi was only wearing a thin linen tunic. He took a deep breath through his nose and tried to focus. 

“Oh good, you’re finally awake.” Kenobi smiled with a softness that Cody had long ago relegated to the realm of dreams. 

“Am I?” He managed to get out though his throat felt a bit as though it had been sandpapered.

“Well you must be feeling better if your sense of humor’s working again.” It hadn’t been a joke, but Cody did his best to smile. 

“If you think you can swallow them, I have some painkillers for you to take.” And with that Cody was being lifted by his armpits and an extra pillow was being wedged behind him so that he was sitting more or less upright. He felt light headed and was relatively sure the change in elevation wasn’t to blame. 

And then he was gone, and Cody itched where their skin had touched. He blearily followed the sound of a faucet until he saw Kenobi filling a cup on the far side of what had to be his single room living space. Stone walls. A table. A small window over the sink. 

Kenobi returned as suddenly as he had left, and Cody felt a pair of tablets pressed into his palm. Moving more out of habit than thought he tossed them into his mouth and reached for the cup of water. Kenobi’s hand hovered over his for a minute until he was certain that Cody wouldn’t drop the cup, then he pulled away. Cody swallowed the pills with a small swig of water. His stomach roiled, but nothing came back up. 

“I’ve got some broth I can heat up in a bit. I’d feel better if you ate something. You’ve gotten awfully thin, Cody.”

Cody wanted to hold on to each word, and make it stick in his mind. This strange second chance was a gift, he knew, but for all his intentions it was hard to keep focused. Kenobi would gesture with his hand, and his tunic would bunch up near his elbow, and the words jumbled together. It was an effort to follow his meaning, so when he knew he was expected to respond he settled for the simplest answer he knew. 

“Yes, sir.”

“Just Obi-Wan, please. I’m not your general anymore.”

Cody flinched hard enough to spill the contents of his cup onto his lap. 

“Kriff, Cody. Not like that. Here, let m…” but whatever else he was saying turned into an indistinct mumble in Cody’s failing ears as he turned away and crossed the room again. 

Cody felt the tension in his shoulders growing and twisting into knots. His breath came in short gasps. Before he was even certain of what he was doing he had hurled the cup at the back of Kenobi’s head. It arced wide and bounced off the wall only to clatter to the floor with the hollow thock thock of cheap plastic. 

Kenobi, Obi-wan, whoever the hell he was, just turned to stare at him with his eyebrows raised. 

“Would you come back and sit down? You’re making me dizzy.” Cody had wanted to sound forceful but he could hear the edge of whining desperation that had edged into his voice. 

He couldn’t hold his gaze after that, so he was staring down at his lap when Obi-wan dropped a dish towel on it. He felt the edge of the bed dip as Obi-wan sat down. He felt a cool, dry hand rest a little hesitantly on his shoulder, then slide around to press gently on his back. Cody leaned forward, stiff at first, then falling slack against Obi-wan’s shoulder. He grabbed two desperate fistfuls of the back of Obi-wan’s shirt, and shivered a little when he felt Obi-wan slide his free arm around his waist. 

They stayed that way for a long moment as Cody shook slightly, and Obi-wan began to rock a little. Eventually his breathing slowed and Obi-wan broke the silence. 

“I suppose we never did get to have that conversation.”

Cody’s stomach dropped again. 

* * *

_ “Is this really the best time for this?” It was a fair argument. Obi-wan had been looking drawn thin for weeks and General Skywalker’s recent behavior had only made things worse. But if their intel was right, and they really had cornered Grievous then the war wouldn’t last much longer, and who knew what would happen to him after that. Cody wouldn’t get many more chances.  _

_ “I’m not saying we need to do this now. I’m just saying that I don’t want to ignore this. We deserve better.” He’d hashed this argument out countless times in his head trying to work up the nerve to say something. Now he hoped that Obi-wan wouldn’t realize he was holding his breath waiting on an answer.  _

_ “Cody you know I’m not, that I don’t…” Obi-wan at a loss for words was an unpleasant rarity, as was the look of painful uncertainty he wore. “I may not be able to be the sort of partner you want.” _

_ “I doubt that’s true.” The use of the word partner seemed a hopeful start at any rate. “Anyway I’m not asking for flowers and wine, I just want us to talk honestly about what we feel and what we want from one another sometime in the near future, preferably without a crisis bearing down on us. Although given the lives we lead, that last bit might not be possible, so I’ll take what I can get.” The last bit won him a thin smile.  _

_ “All right. Yes. This intimacy between us extends past simple professional respect and friendship. We ought to do better than to act as if that’s an inconvenience to be ignored. We’ll talk. Not now, but soon.” _

_ “That's all I want.” Cody held his hands up in mock surrender. _

_ “Liar.” Obi-wan was genuinely smiling now and Cody let out a bark of laughter.  _

_ “Well, it’s all I’m asking for, how about that?” _

_ “That I believe. I have to get going.” _

_ “I’ll see you down there, Sir.” Cody grinned in triumph as his general left the room.  _

_ In less than half a rotation he’d give the order to kill him. _

* * *

Cody was screaming. It was a singular wordless wail of anguish that came from somewhere deep within him and poured out in a torrent accompanied by tears. He howled, gasping for breath each time before beginning again until slowly whatever well of anguish had been tapped began to run dry and he settled into shaky, hiccuping sobs.

“Well, I suppose that is about as accurate a summary of the past few years as anyone is likely to give.” Obi-wan was still holding him close and rubbing his back. “Here.” He reached down to retrieve the towel from Cody’s lap and pulled back just enough to awkwardly pat at the tears on Cody’s face. Cody slowly let go of his fistfuls of shirt to take the towel and blow his nose into it before the snot bubbling there completely shredded what was left of his dignity. 

“Feeling any better?”

“I don’t know.” Mostly he felt scrubbed raw, naked, and vulnerable. 

“I’ve missed you, you know.” Obi-wan kissed his temple and Cody felt he might fall apart again. He settled for collapsing back into Obi-wan’s shoulder. 

“I’m not the man I was back then,” he murmured. 

“Well neither am I. I have, however, dedicated my life to a philosophy that change is paradoxically the immutable nature of the universe, which is the reason there was such concern about attachments. We shall simply have to love the men we have become rather than senselessly clinging to a past that no longer exists.” Obi-wan returned to rubbing circles on his back as he spoke. 

“As easy as that then?” Cody snorted. It was hard not to find some measure of comfort in the familiar blithe tone. 

“Oh my dear, I don’t believe we have ever done anything easy. But I have real confidence in our skills. Or at the very least our ability to be pig headed and refuse to give up.”

“Well, I can’t argue with that.” Despite everything, Cody smiled. 


End file.
